One Third Of 'New Russia' Is Now Controlled By 'Green Men'

Vladimir Putin has repeatedly referred to
southeast Ukraine as "Novorussia,"
or "New Russia," and has asserted the right to intervene on the
behalf of ethnic Russians living there.

Novorussia is a historical term referring to territory
conquered by the Russian Empire in the 1700s
and made part of the Ukrainian Soviet
Socialist Republic, part of the Soviet Union, in
1922.

Russia already annexed one
of those regions, Crimea, and now masked pro-Russian gunmen —
some of whom areheavily armed and wearing
military uniforms without insignia — are in control of the
eastern regions of Donetsk and
Luhansk. Separatists in both
regions arecallingfor referendums over
sovereignty on May 11th.

Kiev is "helpless"
to restore order in the east, and acting
President Oleksandr Turchynov said that the top
priority is to protect the Kharkiv and Odessa regions
from the spreading insurgency.

That will be a tall task. Masked gunman shot the mayor of
Kharkiv, who
supported ousted pro-Moscow President Viktor
Yanukovych before supporting a united Ukraine, in the back
while he was jogging.

Last week,
seven people were injured in Odessa when a bomb
exploded at a pro-Ukraine checkpoint in the strategic
Black Sea port city.

To Odessa's
west, about 1,200 Russian soldiers are based in the
pro-Russian region
of Trans­nistria, Moldova.

Basically, recent events have played to Putin's desire to keep
"Novorussia" regions in the Kremlin's
orbit after a popular revolution toppled Yanukovych and a
West-leaning government was formed.

To that end,
it appears that those conspicuous "green
men" are making Putin's New Russia a
reality.

Pro-Russian armed men
stand guard at a checkpoint after pro-Russian activists set tires
on fire when Ukrainian soldiers arrived on armoured personnel
carriers, on the outskirts of Slaviansk, eastern Ukraine April
30, 2014.REUTERS/Baz
Ratner